Louisiana Democratic Party denies 3 delegates to fringe candidate

WASHINGTON -- The Louisiana Democratic Party announced Monday that it will not award presidential candidate John Wolfe Jr. any delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. This decision comes even though Wolfe exceeded the 15 percent of the vote in three congressional districts that, under party rules, would have merited him at least three delegates.

View full sizeDemocratic presidential candidate John Wolfe Jr plans to go to federal court in Baton Rouge 'to make sure the 17,804 Louisianans who voted for me are represented at the convention.'

"Mr. Wolfe is not eligible for any delegates in the state of Louisiana as he failed to comply with the Louisiana delegate selection plan," said James Hallinan, director of communications and research for the state party. "Mr. Wolfe violated rule 2B in the delegate selection plan by failing to certify an authorized representative for his campaign in Louisiana to the Louisiana Democratic Party by the deadline of December 9, 2011.

"Additionally, Mr. Wolfe failed to provide the Louisiana Democratic Party with a statement of full participation by the deadline of October 1, 2011. Both rules are included in the Louisiana delegate selection plan that has been publicly available online via the Louisiana Democratic Party's website since April of 2011."

However, by paying strict attention to those two filing deadlines, the party would seem to be abrogating the letter and spirit of another provision of the rules, which states that, "The Louisiana presidential primary election is a 'binding' primary. Accordingly, delegate and alternate positions shall be allocated so as to fairly reflect the expressed presidential (or uncommitted) preference of the primary voters in each district. The National Convention delegates and alternates selected at the district level shall be allocated in proportion to the percentage of the primary vote won in that district by each preference, except that preferences falling below a 15 percent threshold shall not be awarded any delegates or alternates."

"The rules say that the result of the presidential primary is binding," said Wolfe, a lawyer from Chattanooga, Tenn., who won 19.62 percent of the vote in the 1st Congressional District, 17.24 percent in the 3rd Congressional District, and 22.04 percent in the 7th Congressional District.

"Any person in the party who thinks they can make up the rules as we go along is violating the due process provision of the Constitution, which applies to state parties," Wolfe said. "I will be going to the federal court in Baton Rouge to make sure the 17,804 Louisianans who voted for me are represented at the convention."

The actual delegates representing the candidates in proportion to their primary vote will be chosen at May 5 congressional district caucuses, and two Louisiana Democrats had filed in two of those districts as pledged Wolfe delegates, but the party did not accept them, apparently because of Wolfe's failure to meet the two deadlines.

Wolfe would have been the only candidate other than President Barack Obama to have delegates at the convention. After anti-abortion activist Randall Terry exceeded the 15 percent delegate threshold in the March 6 Oklahoma primary, the state party there denied him delegates on different technical grounds.